An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away

Two years ago we were very fortunate to have a customer who had a pear tree in her yard and we had a chance to pick all the pears we wanted from the tree as she only picked a few for herself. The pears that we picked, most of them were canned to be enjoyed at a later time and they were simply delicious! Dear Dottie had since then sold her house and moved out of town.
A few months ago we finally finished the last jar of the canned spice pear.

Well, it's apple picking season in upstate New York and I got thinking "why not try canning some apples?" So, that's what I did last weekend. I didn't pick my own apples, I bought 3 lbs of apples from our local apple orchard(just down the street from me, how convenient!).

The recipe I used came from Pick Your Own. This is a site I love visiting. I have learned a lot about canning and freezing from here. She has step-by-step detail instructions and pictures. If you have never done any canning and preserving before and would like to learn how, this is the site to go to.

I used a light syrup solution for these apples. You can get a list of how much sugar and water to use according to your taste(light, med. heavy syrups or with fruit juice and so on) from here. Because I only had 3 lbs of apples, I had leftover syrup that I just poured out.

1) Peel and core the apples. Slice the apples to 1/4" - 1/2" thick. If you have a corer/slicer, it would make your job easier.
2) Blanch the sliced apples for about 5 minutes. Drain the apples.
3) Make the syrup.
4) Fill the jars with hot apples and hot syrup, leaving 1/2" headspace. Wipe off the reams, place lids on jars and process in hot water bath for 20 minutes.

I'm planning to buy some more apples and this time I'll try to can some apple pie filling.

Oh Where Oh Where...

Oh where oh where has that little rock gone?

Oh where oh where can it be?

Been Busy

I must really apologize for the lack of posting lately. I normally do my posting at lunch time at work. But due to the departure of a co-worker, I have taken on more responsibilities until her replacement is more familiar with the job. Of course it doesn't help when I took a week off for my vacation. Hopefully in a month or so I'll be able to get back on track.

I still have more photos from camp to post. So perhaps I will post a few once a week.

I will leave you with some photos of June

More Photos

There are plenty of things that campers can do while camping at Fish Creek Pond Campground, biking, hiking, boating, kayaking, canoeing, fishing and so on. We normally choose to do nothing other than taking walks with the dogs on the trail or watching the dogs play in the lake. We do occationally like to go canoeing.

There are different ponds and lakes that campers can canoe to. Some routes might require a little walking and carrying the canoe.

This year was my first time canoeing to different ponds. We canoed right from our site on Fish Creek Pond through Fish Creek to Copperas Pond and then from there headed to Little Square Pond. Below is a map of the route we took.

On the way into Copperas Pond we saw a loon. He wasn't very happy that we entered his territory. I took a few pictures of this little guy.

While we were at Copperas Pond, we also saw a Blue Heron. I tried to take a picture of him but it's not very clear. He tried to fly away.

After Copperas Pond, we canoed to Little Square Pond. I must say, it is really beautiful and peaceful. Here's a picture of Little Square Pond.














Here's a picture of little fish swimming by my feet.

Dine and Wine Camping Style

Camping food doesn't have to be boring or ordinary. Cooking on an open campfire is fun, although I'm not usually the one "in charge" of cooking on open fire. Hubby is the expert in that. I just prepare the food and he takes care of the cooking part.

So for this trip here's what we had, not in any particular order(I didn't take any pictures of our food):

1) Lunch: Turkey or Roastbeef sandwiches - Ciabatta bread(no, I didn't make these, I bought them from a bakery), sliced turkey or roastbeef, swiss cheese, mesclun mix, onion and tomato

2) Breakfast: French Toast(using leftover ciabatta bread) & bacon

3) Breakfast: Bacon, egg and cheese on toasted bagels

4) Lunch: Hamburgers & Hotdogs

5) Dinner: Grilled steak with homefries and corn on the cob

6) Dinner: Pizza, camping style (I brought a frozen pizza dough with us, by the time we used it, it was dethawed. I used a baking pan(took the aluminium one from the toaster oven), put the toppings on the dough, cover the pan with foil and "baked" on campfire)

7) Lunch: Hot sausages

8) Brunch: Hot sausage patties with cheese on Ciabatta bread or bagel

9) Dinner: Ribs and corn on the cob

10) Dessert: Banana with chocolate chips

11) Snack: Popcorn

And there you have it.

I was going to post some more pictures but Blogger is having some internal problems with uploading pictures. Guess you'll just have to wait till the next time.

Our Camping Trip

Wow, what a great week we had! The weather couldn't be better! Not a drop of rain, mostly perfect temp, in the high 70s and in mid/high 50s at night, and sunny!

We left our house Saturday morning by 8:30am and made the 3hr drive up to the Adirondacks. The dogs slept most of the way there. June would stick her head out the window occasionally to get some fresh air.

We spent most of our days doing absolutely nothing at all! The girls had a great time swimming in the lake. June had a blast chasing ducks** in the water and Samantha really enjoyed "diving" and digging out rocks under water!!!

Here are some of the many pictures I took during our trip. I will be posting more pictures in the next few days. Enjoy!

**No ducks were hurt during this process

The girls and I, just chillin' and enjoying the lake

June in action



Samantha digging for rocks


Samantha with a frisbie in her mouth


Mike, watching the girls played


Our camper and Mike's truck


June, going after a duck** and
Samantha was looking for another rock to dig out

Back to Civilization....

Sigh...sigh...sigh....why do we have to come back from camp?

Hi folks, I'm back. Not much time to blog about our camping trip yet. Lots of catching up to do at work and at home(came home to loads and loads of tomatoes!). I promise I will blog about our wonderful trip very soon, with lots of pictures. So please be patient.